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View of Zir-e taq. The edge of the vaulted roof that covers the kucheh can be seen at the top of the photograph. Shiraz. At the time of Reza Shah a new street called Khiaban-e Now (New Street) was driven through Shiraz’s mahalleh, dividing the Jewish residential area into two separate sections. One continued to be called mahalleh, and the other was referred to as Zir-e taq (under the dom), so called because many of its alleys (kucheh), often no wider than a meter, were covered with a vaulted roof (see fig. 1462). In colloquial parlance, these narrow side streets were referred to as Ashti-konun (see fig. 1461)-- a term that vaguely translates into “forgive-and-forget”-- because the passage was so tight that if two estranged friends encountered each other in them they could not pass by each other without their bodies touching and would hence be “forced” to resolve the issue that stood between them. (Courtesy of CIJOH. Photograph by Prof. Laurence Loeb.)
From Esther's Children: A Portrait of Iranian Jews.
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Contact author Houman Sarshar